Author's Note: Once again, I apologize for the delay. Only one more chapter to go after this, though, and we're done!
England went back inside the hotel and headed straight for Canada's room. When he knocked, Canada opened the door almost immediately.
"What is it?" Canada asked, looking slightly confused. He noticed England's mood seemed to have improved; what had happened?
"The test results came back; the president just called me earlier and told me," England explained.
Canada looked unimpressed. "So, what did he say?"
"Neither one matched; just like Japan tried to tell him," England replied. "However, he seems to acknowledge that the real America is, in fact, the real one."
Canada let out a small sigh of relief.
"That's good…"
"He also said he's going to release the real America back to us. I need you to come with me to pick him up," England said.
Canada's face lit up at that. "All right," he said. "One moment…"
Canada went back in his room, over to the bedside table, and picked up his car keys. He rejoined England in the hallway and closed his room door. Without any further ado, the two nations went downstairs. They went outside, headed directly for the parking lot. When they got to Canada's car, Canada unlocked the doors and quickly hopped into the driver's seat while England rode shotgun.
"He's at the White House, right?" Canada asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.
"Yes," England replied.
Canada nodded and remained silent for the rest of the drive. It took a while to navigate through DC traffic, but eventually, they arrived at their destination. After parking the car, Canada and England quickly headed over to the White House lawn.
As they approached, the president, America, and a handful of Secret Service agents came out the entrance of the White House, greeting England and Canada on the steps. Both England and Canada shook hands with the president and briefly exchanged greetings. Then, the president gestured to America, who stepped forward to join his fellow nations.
"The other one is still locked up?" England asked.
"Yes," the president replied. Noting the skeptical look in England's eye, he added, "He's being held under the highest security possible; he's not going to escape. And neither are Charles and Ian, for that matter."
"That's good to hear," England said, though he still looked unconvinced. "I just want to make sure you didn't accidentally mix them up."
America frowned. "Come on, England," he said. "He knows which one of us is which."
"Recalling what Mr. Honda said about the memory transfer; that the real one would still have recent memory," the president said. "I made sure to ask him a few questions in that area, just to be absolutely certain."
England relaxed. "Good."
The Englishman was about to turn to leave right then and there, but he suddenly recalled Canada's words about America's altered DNA. There was a possibility that the US government had a sample of America's DNA somewhere that might be usable, and now was as good a time as any to get it.
"One more thing, Mr. President," England said.
"And what is that?" the president asked.
"Where is the sample that both Americas' DNA samples were compared with?"
"What do you need that for?" the president asked incredulously. "The test has already been done, what else could you do with it?"
"I told you that a cure to the nation-killing drug is likely within our reach," England said. "However, we're missing a potentially crucial element: an unaffected sample of the infected nation's DNA."
The president nodded, as if to indicate his understanding, but still looked confused.
"I take it it's some kind of… ingredient in the cure?" he said. He paused, staring intently at the floor as he thought it over. "Fine. Let me make a phone call, and it'll be brought here shortly. I'll call you back in once I have it; it could take a while."
England nodded, then dismissed himself. Canada and America followed close behind. They quickly made their way outside and over to Canada's car, and once everyone was in, Canada put the car in drive and immediately headed back to the hotel.
The first minute or so of the drive was in silence, but was eventually broken by America.
"Hey, England, you said that sample would be part of the cure, right?" he asked.
"Yes, why?" England replied.
"Well, I'm pretty sure you can't use my sample for Lithuania. Where is his sample going to come from?" America said.
"His government should have a clean sample somewhere," England replied. "All he has to do is call his boss."
As England spoke, he reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone. He texted Lithuania with a quick explanation of what was going on, as well as an instruction to call his boss. After sending the text, England immediately put the phone back in his pocket. For another minute, the car was silent again.
"When will France be here?" Canada asked suddenly.
"Not sure, really," England replied. "When I talked to him, he said 'within twenty four hours'. At the earliest, he'd be arriving late tonight, but honestly, I don't expect him until tomorrow morning."
Canada said nothing, but nodded slightly. The three nations fell silent once more, and stayed that way until they arrived at their destination. They went to the lobby to get America checked in – he ended up sharing Canada's room – then headed upstairs.
While America and Canada went directly to their room, England decided to check on the others. He walked up to Lithuania's door first and knocked. There was a sound of muffled footsteps and voices for a second or two, then the door opened.
"Ah, England, you're back."
It was Russia, not Lithuania, who stood in the doorway. Behind the Russian, England could just barely see Estonia. If Lithuania was even in here, he was hidden from view at the moment.
"Russia," England said. "Where is Lithuania?"
Russia took a few steps back from the threshold and turned slightly to allow England a better view of the interior of the room. It turned out Lithuania was lying on the bed, apparently asleep. Estonia and Latvia stood off to the side of the bed, and Estonia was holding a phone in his hand.
"He's having another episode," Russia said. "He lost consciousness several minutes ago, not long after you sent that text."
"Oh…"
England bit his lip, suppressing the urge to curse in frustration. He glanced over at Estonia. Is that Lithuania's phone he's holding, then?
"Did he have a chance to contact his boss before the episode began?" England asked.
Russia shook his head. "He was already in the middle of it when he got the text. He only recently lost consciousness. However, Estonia volunteered to contact Lithuania's boss for him."
England glanced over at Estonia again. He doesn't appear to be contacting anyone; he's just holding the phone…
"Don't worry," Russia said. "He's already made the call."
England nodded. "So, we just wait for him to wake up?"
"Da."
"Right then…"
It was clear there was nothing else he could do, so England turned around and headed for his own room. He went in, shut the door, and sat quietly on the bed.
There really is nothing to do at this point, England thought. We're all waiting on France to get here with that serum…
(-)
France's flight landed very late that night. As soon as he disembarked from the plane, he got out his phone and sent a quick text to England, letting him know that he had landed and would be in DC within the next few hours. Given the late hour, he highly doubted England was even awake, but he sent the message anyway. If France arrived before England got a look at the text, said text could simply be ignored.
After sending his message, the next thing France needed to do was arrange transportation for himself. He had not bothered to arrange this in advance, so he was left with either a rental car or public transportation. France opted for the rental car.
Rather to France's surprise, he got a text on his phone as he was pulling out of the parking lot in his new rental. He quickly checked the phone. It was a reply from England; however, the only thing in the message was an address for the hotel he was staying at. France spent a few seconds committing the address to memory, then put the phone away and continued driving.
A few hours later, France arrived in Washington, DC. It took him a while to locate the building he was looking for, but when he did find it, he pulled into the parking lot, parked the car, and got out. He stood in the parking lot, phone in hand, deciding whether he needed to call before going inside. England had neglected to give a room number, which likely meant that France would have to either call or text again just so he could know which room to go to. With a small sigh of annoyance, France got his suitcase out of the trunk of the car, then headed for the hotel entrance.
As France got close to the doors, the doors were opened, and someone came outside. France quickly recognized that someone as England.
"There you are," England said.
France glared at England. "I just got here," France said. "You forgot to tell me which room number you were in; is that why you're out here? You could have just sent a second text."
"Shut up," England said. "I didn't 'forget' anything. You said you would meet us at the hotel; that doesn't mean you would have had to come directly to the room. This works just as well."
France rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said. "Let's go inside already."
Without another word, England turned around and went back inside, France following close behind. They made their way to the stairs, and England led the way to his room. When France stepped inside, England quickly closed the door, then dug out the spellbooks from under the bed. He spread the spellbooks out across the bed, then took a few steps back, looking pointedly at France.
"Where is the serum?" England asked.
France dug the makeup kit out of his satchel and retrieved the serum, then set the serum on the bedside table.
"Right," England said, looking back and forth between the serum and the spellbooks. "Now, the hard part – figuring out how to augment the serum with my magic…"
"The document Allemagne sent me should be able to tell us which spells we'll need," France said.
"And where is the document?" England asked.
"Give me a moment…"
France opened up his suitcase and began to search through it. He had not counted on any of the nations having a computer handy, so he had packed a small personal laptop in with his clothes. When he found the laptop, he set it on the desk next to the room's TV set. He turned the power on, then retrieved the USB from his pocket. Within minutes, France was able to bring up a display of the document on the computer screen.
"It's right… here!" France said as he scrolled down, looking for the section they needed. He pointed to the specific paragraph he was looking for, and England leaned closer to look.
"All right," England said, reading every line carefully.
It took him several minutes to read and find everything he needed, but once he finished, England went back over to his spellbooks and thumbed through the pages, marking specific spells by folding the top corner of the page. Several minutes later, England finished, and turned around to face France.
"What?" France asked.
"These spells require preparation," England replied. "We can't finish this tonight."
France glanced at the clock on England's bedside table.
"It's actually one o'clock in the morning…" he said.
England rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he said. "We can't finish this now. Besides, we both need the rest."
France nodded, then proceeded to put everything away. With everything back in his suitcase, he was about to leave, but stopped suddenly.
"We never got a room for me," he said.
"Then go downstairs and see if they'll check you in at this hour!" England said, waving his hand dismissively. "You're sure as hell not staying in here."
"Why not?" France said. "That bed is large enough-"
"Get out!" England snapped.
France didn't bother to press the issue. England was not in the mood to argue, and the two of them had more pressing matters to deal with anyway. France picked up his suitcase and left the room.
